To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Japanese baseball, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) has published the two-volume set, Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volumes I and II. Over 100 baseball teams from the United States and Hawaii have crossed the Pacific to play baseball in Japan since 1906. Nichibei Yakyu Volumes I and II are the first works in English that focuses on these international tours and volume 2 focuses on the latter portion of the 20th century and the 21st.
Since 1960 these tours have featured World Champions like the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers, as well as Cincinnati's Big Red Machine, and have even incorporated the official opening Day of the Major League Baseball season, as well as triumphant returns to Japan for stars such as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui. These tours helped spread the game across the globe, spawned thousands of individual friendships, and helped bring nations together through the mutual love of baseball.
Volume II contains chpaters on all 29 major league squads that travelled to Japan from 1960 to 2019. Each chapter is accompanied by game results and player statistics. Also included for the first time in any language are tables showing the all-time leaders from the Japan tours in various statistical categories, as well as the statistics of selected Japanese players against major league competition.